In August 2009 he moved to the Barwa Addax team to replace Formula One-bound Romain Grosjean, alongside Vitaly Petrov.

In the main series, he dropped behind Turvey, but scored his first pole position and won the final race of the season to take eighth in the drivers' championship, his best performance so far.

In the main series, he took the team's first victory in the Monaco feature race, and also set his first fastest lap in the category.

After another double points finish at Valencia, however, he failed to score in the remaining ten races, slipping back to eighth in the championship and equalling his previous year's result.

A strong performer from the start of the year, he established a championship lead by winning three out of the four races held in Bahrain.

[12] He then drove in Friday practice during the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend in April 2011, replacing Heikki Kovalainen in the morning session.

[15] Prior to the 2013 US Grand Prix Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen announced he would miss the final two races of the season needing emergency back surgery due to an old injury.

However, with its lucrative place in the constructors' championship on the line, Lotus opted to choose a more experienced driver to fill the position.

Valsecchi and Matteo Bobbi were temporarily suspended by Sky Italia for making sexist remarks during an on-air post-race analysis of the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix.